So, I just finished reading Dance with Dragons, so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to make a topic on the series, since I know we have some readers here!

I'd rank the books 3>2>1>4>5 (Dance plodded waaaaay too much, but the Reek chapters help make up for it)

My overall opinion of the series is that its a very interesting deconstruction of fantasy tropes and has absolutely fascinating characters, but the prose does tend to leave a lot to be desired. But at the end of the day, the incredible characters make up for whatever deficits Martin has in terms of prose.

I'm even hearing some people say the series might even be considered a staple of classic literature one day, and while I think that's a bit much (again, if anything the prose will probably keep it from that distinction), but I do think the series will be an absolute classic as far as the Fantasy subgenre is concerned.

The fourth book was sooooooooo tedious and boring! It's a whole freakin cornucopia of... NOTHING.

The fifth book was very Cercei-centric and she is by far my favorite character so, it didn't feel so bad.

As to decide if it will become staple, well, our current generation seem to worship what is popular over what is good. HBO took ASOIAF and turned it into a show about nude teenage girls so, it became THE thing everyone watches. Is it good? Yes. Is it entertaining? Yup. Is it classic material? Gimme a break...

The tv show is definitely good, but unfortunately misses out on a lot of cool details that you get in the books. When I'm talking about classic status, I'm talking moreso the books.

One example is in Storm of Swords when Tyrion kills Tywin. The books constantly say about how Tywin craps out gold. So when Tyrion kills him, its so satisfying that the books note that "Tywin did not in fact, crap gold.".

I actually liked Feast for Crows more than Dance with Dragons. Jaime Lannister quickly become one of my favorite characters once I got inside his pov and I was saddened he barely had any screentime in Dance.

Last edited by Hukos on Tue Dec 16, '14, 9:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What I really like about the Lannister children is that they're all broken in some way or another.

Cersei lusts for power and wishes to be born male so that she could have the power she feels she's entitled to. Unfortunately, she lives in a patriarchal society, so that won't happen anytime soon. She's forced into a lot of things she doesn't like, and having to marry someone she can't stand for, that's arguably abusive to her.

Cersei is the type of person you'd feel sorry for if she wasn't a horrible person.

Jaime is the most obvious, he's a cripple. Which is ironic, because of the fact that he made Bran a cripple early in the series. But there's more to it than just that, he had to kill his own King when he was 15 (That alone would probably screw you up more than you would think). He's also stuck between trying to please his father, please his brother, and be a lover to Cersei all at the same time. Now, all three of them hate and despise each other, so that's not exactly easy! Jaime's the least broken of the Lannister children mentally, but he has a physical handicap going for him.

Then there's Tyrion. Obviously Tyrion's a dwarf, so he gets the worst of the lot. He's broken in ways that aren't really apparent. As much as he tries to convince himself otherwise, he never really got over Tysha and to this day it still affects his worldview of women and why he whores himself out so much. He can't really ever be a lord because his father hates him, and if something goes wrong he's the first one to be blamed for it.

The funny thing is that with each of those characters, none of their personalities exist in a vacuum. Things about them affect one another in different ways! The entire cast of SoIaF is very synergistic in that way, and I really like that! It shows how much attention to detail was paid in making these characters.

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